Lessons from Cartagena: Connecting with 1,000+ Changemakers, Harnessing AI, and Building a Hopeful Future of Health
Image credits: Google DeepMind | Unsplash
In June I made my very first trip to Colombia, where I had the incredible opportunity to speak with 1000+ healthcare professionals, policymakers, and system leaders at the ANDI 31st Foro de la Salud. I focused on something urgent, hopeful, and very real:
What kind of healthcare system are we building—for ourselves, our patients, and future generations?
The True Opportunity of AI in Healthcare
My talk explored how AI can become a critical connective tissue across the health continuum. In this vision, the goal is not to replace human care, but to enhance it. To restore it. To extend its reach, precision, and humanity. To achieve not another technology, but real transformation.
Healthcare systems around the world (including in Colombia) are navigating rising complexity: aging populations, workforce burnout, climate-linked health risks, and growing expectations for access and personalization.
At the same time, AI in healthcare is advancing fast. The real opportunity here isn’t automation for its own sake. It’s strategic augmentation for the humans at the core of healthcare, like with:
Decision support that reduces cognitive overload
Early detection powered by data, not just symptoms
Administrative relief that gives clinicians time to care
Predictive tools that can prevent crises before they start.
In my talk, I shared a framework inspired by the SAE’s levels of autonomy in self-driving cars, reimagined for medicine—from basic task automation to fully ambient, invisible care. Dr. Eric Topol had pointed to this analogy in his classic 2019 book Deep Medicine. Stay tuned for more on this from me!
Leaning in to AI to Make Healthcare More People-Centered, Climate-Aware, and Dignified
Image credits: Patty Brito | Unsplash
But here’s the thing: no matter how much autonomy we allow into our healthcare systems, I think that we still need human oversight, trust, and empathy. Think of AI in healthcare not as designing machines, but as designing relationships.
AI becomes powerful in healthcare not when it “takes over”, but when it connects the dots. Particularly between fundamental research and the real-world complexity of health, disease, and aging, and between patients and providers, data and decisions, systems and human stories.
How can we build a future that’s not only technologically advanced, but people-centered, climate-aware, and dignified? Here are the big ideas that I think capture where we (should) go from here:
✅ AI in healthcare will not scale unless trust scales with it.
✅ Healthcare workers deserve augmentation, not replacement.
✅ We must invest in innovation ecosystems that are inclusive, ethical, and sustainable—from data governance to workforce upskilling to renewable infrastructure.
What Kind of Healthcare Future Do We Want to Build? (Yes, with AI and with Each Other)
What’s the bottom line? The question isn’t what AI can do. It’s what kind of future we want to build—with tech, and with each other.
I’m so grateful to the participants who shared their vision, challenges, and brilliance in Cartagena in June. The future of healthcare is already taking shape … and if we get this right, it’ll be more collaborative, more ambitious, and more deeply human than ever.
PS Thank you Claudia Aparicio and MenteX for this opportunity to dive deep into AI and the future of healthcare!
More Photos from Cartagena
About Tiffany
Dr. Tiffany Vora speaks, writes, and advises on how to harness technology to build the best possible future(s). She is an expert in biotech, health, & innovation.
For a full list of topics and collaboration opportunities, visit Tiffany’s Work Together webpage.
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